Bermane Stiverne talks about a possible title defense against Deontay Wilder

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Sep 18 2014 6:49 PM

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WBC Heavyweight World Champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KO's) who won his belt by defeating Chris Arreola, back in May 2014 via sixth round TKO, will most likely be defending his title against undefeated heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (32-0-0, 32 KO's) in the upcoming months.

There is a purse big coming up on October 1. A few guesses from this corner say Stiverne's promoter, Don King, will NOT be the winner of the purse bid. Either Camille Estephan or RocNation will come out of the pirse bid with the fight. Golden Boy will be a distant third.

Will the fight happen this year?

If the purse bid does indeed take place on October 1 and there are no more delays, the fight can still happen this year. Another delay, even of a few weeks, takes this fight into January or February.

The heavyweight division needs this fight to happen.

-Randy G.

oubobcat says:

[QUOTE=The Commish;64834]There is a purse big coming up on October 1. A few guesses from this corner say Stiverne's promoter, Don King, will NOT be the winner of the purse bid. Either Camille Estephan or RocNation will come out of the pirse bid with the fight. Golden Boy will be a distant third.

Will the fight happen this year?

If the purse bid does indeed take place on October 1 and there are no more delays, the fight can still happen this year. Another delay, even of a few weeks, takes this fight into January or February.

The heavyweight division needs this fight to happen.

-Randy G.[/QUOTE]

Don King is a wildcard in this purse bid. He has in recent years come in with high purse bids (sometimes even for fighters he did not have) and then try to find a crazy way to finance those fights. I think he tried that with Arreola-Stiverne but eventually could not come up with the funds and missed the deadline. He may try something similar here, throw a high number out there and then try to finance it in some very creative manner.

I think though Roc Nation is looking to make a splash and what better way to do so then with a heavyweight championship fight. I expect them to come in with a bid in excess of 2 million and win the right to stage the fight. We will see then how Al Haymon responds (he has Wilder). Things are about to get very interesting I think.

deepwater2 says:

No way will tsAH let this fight happen if he doesn't have control of the winner.

Porter and Gary Russell Jr lost and tsAH ,aka Brian K. Pitts , lost some leverage when that happened. That's why he sabotaged Quillin's belt after building him up the easy way.

Stiverne is the weaker link to get to the promised land of the heavyweight championship so I am positive tsAH wants to make the fight but it must be on his terms.

Don King vs tsAH is the real fight.

If tsAH can't have the heavyweight champion of the world his crazy dream of taking over boxing can't happen.

The Good Doctor says:

This would be the first heavyweight fight that would bring legitimate interest since Vlad v. Haye.

If this one comes off, there are some real things on the line. If Wilder wins, he would have someone on his resume who is more than a cadaver. On the other hand, if he loses and loses badly, he will come off as a bit of a Gary Russell Jr type. Padded record, not a good fighter.

If Stiverne wins, it puts him square in the heavyweight spotlight and probably the next face of the heavyweight division. If he loses, he is probably downgraded to just another guy in a muddled division.